Tag: Fritz Maytag

On Oct. 29, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History hosted a talk and a dinner to honor the contributions of some of the earliest makers of fine wine in the United States. It was also part of the museum’s American Food and Wine History Project, which has been curating artifacts, oral histories and documents... View Article

This Saturday, Nov. 1, is the 15th annual Learn to Homebrew Day, designed to encourage new devotees to take up the habit. It is also a perfect time to celebrate the often unsung heroes who, a generation ago, exerted a tun of effort to make homebrewing the nationwide hobby, even lifestyle, it is today. Alan... View Article

On June 26, 1975, Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco bottled 530 cases of what its owner, Fritz Maytag, called Liberty Ale. It had been released in draft in April to mark the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride through Greater Boston. Ironically enough, given its commemoration of the start of the American Revolution, complete... View Article

Looking Back at a Quarter Century of Business, Beer and PeopleJanuary 1, 2014 - Stan Hieronymus

Fifty-six American breweries began operating in 1988. By necessity, 55 of them started small. That they all started 25 years ago was mostly coincidence. Noteworthy breweries opened in pretty much every one of the years before and after. But ultimately, as Goose Island Beer Co. founder John Hall put it, “It was a special year.”... View Article

An Inside Look at the Pioneering Days of American Craft BeerJuly 1, 2013 - Tom Acitelli

One day in August, 1965, a 27-year-old former graduate student in Japanese studies at Stanford walked into his favorite bar, the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco’s trendy North Beach neighborhood. He ordered his usual: an Anchor Steam. The bar’s owner, a World War II veteran and local eccentric named Fred Kuh, ambled over. “You... View Article

In his new book, The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution, author Tom Acitelli takes readers back to the early days of craft beer and beautifully explains the humble beginnings of pioneers like Anchor Brewing Co. and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The result, as our reviewer put it, is “a first-rate piece... View Article

Looking at the shelves this season, it occurs to me that Christmas beer must’ve been invented by atheists. Only non-believers completely lacking in dogma could embrace this anything-goes style of beer, a style that not only irreligiously rejects the confines of formal classification but whose original purpose was nothing less than the blasphemous inebriation of... View Article

The year 1980 was pretty much the real beginning of what has become the craft beer revolution here in this country. Ken Grossman, owner, founder and CEO of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico, CA, plans to mark 2010 with a year-long celebration, in cooperation with Fritz Maytag and his San Francisco Anchor Brewery. To... View Article

Whenever I visit the San Francisco Bay area, I always make sure to have some draught Anchor Steam Beer. This is California’s monumental contribution to America’s great beer heritage, and a cornerstone brew in our ongoing craft beer revolution. California common beer, as the style is known, remains one of my favorite styles, but finding... View Article